Mustafizur Rahman is special, says Sussex captain Luke Wright
London, July 22 (IANS) After left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman served up a superb bowling spell to steer Sussex Sharks to victory over Essex Eagle on his county cricket debut, captain Luke Wright said the Bangladesh youngster was worth the wait.
The 20-year-old put his guile on display to return with 4/23 as Sussex, who had been languishing in the bottom half of the South Group, earned a 24-run win at Chelmsford in the NatWest T20 Blast on Thursday.
"It has taken some hard work to get Rahman here, and a lot of people have worked hard to make it happen. Now we can see why he was worth so much time and effort," Wright was quoted as saying by bdnews24.com on Friday.
"He is a very special bowler. He has put in a performance straight away, that was very special to watch."
Wright said they had tried to play Mustafizur's deliveries before the match, maybe to get a feel of what they should be expecting. But the left-arm Bangladeshi pacer outfoxed them.
"It is so hard to pick what he is going to do. In the warm-up we were trying to work him out and we couldn't," the 31-year-old captain said.
"Credit to our keeper Craig Cachopa, who kept really well to him tonight -- it is not easy when you've had no time to watch him before or to have faced him."
Mustafizur was supposed to join up with Sussex in early June. But he returned from the Indian Premier League (IPL) with a hamstring injury towards the end of May. Sussex, however, did not give up and gave Mustafizur more time, but the delay stretched on.
It took him about a month to recover and visa issues delayed his arrival by about two more weeks. But his remarkable display of seam bowling was surely inspiring for Sussex, who sealed only their second T20 Blast win in eight games.
"He got a flight yesterday so he's come straight in and bowled like that. We have a very special talent on our hands."
Sussex will take on Surrey in their next match on Friday.